5 incredible sportscars that caught our eye at the Classic Daytona 24

AAR Eagle MkIII Toyota

Where do you even start here? It’s a creation of Dan Gurney’s legendary All-American Racers team. It competed in IMSA’s mighty GTP prototype class when it was at its incredible height. It was so good at that time that it basically killed GTP off and consigned it to the history books. The Eagle MkIII is a pretty special car all around. Back in 1991-’93 the Eagle MkIII entered a total of 27 races. It won 21. In 1993 the MkIII won every single race it entered. But the amazing things don’t end with its history. The Eagle MkIII had over 800hp in 1992 (it was given a tighter air-restrictor in 1993), which it produced from a mind bogglingly small 2.1-litre Toyota engine. And not only was that engine small, it was also an inline-four! What an absolutely insane machine!

Corvette C5R 

The Corvette C5R celebrates its 20^th birthday this year, and the best way we’ve seen so far to celebrate is this stunning example, which has joined us at Daytona for the Classic 24. It’s just been freshly restored with the help of Corvette Racing themselves and is the prized new possession of our old friend Florent Moulin. A man whose cars we have met before… several times. There’s something about the C5R that makes it feel like it has so much more presence than the cars that followed it. With 600hp from its 6.9-litre V8 it also sounds impressive and goes like stink. Only 11 C5Rs were ever built, but between them they clinched 31 victories in 55 races and won the Le Mans 24 Hours three times before it was retired in 2004. An incredible machine.

Lola T70 MkIIIB

There has to be a Lola on here, we’re celebrating Lola at this year’s Classic 24 with a great array of Huntingdon’s finest. But for us it is the mighty MkIIIB that really sets itself apart. Perhaps the ultimate iteration of one of Lola’s finest creations, the T70, the MkIIIB would battle the likes of Porsche’s 917 and Ferrari’s 512 on an even footing during some of the greatest days of sportscar history. The T70 might not have claimed much in the way of big headline wins as it went closed-cockpit, but it did with the Daytona 24 in 1969, 50 years ago. Today the T70, with its mighty Chevrolet sounds incredible back in the place of its migthtiest triumph. And it still looks epic.

Peugeot 908 HDi FAP

Here is a tiny bit of history re-writing, or rather the writing of a history that we really missed out on. You see LMP1 cars have never competitively raced at Daytona. The split of the American Le Mans Series and Grand-Am in the US meant that the P1 cars headed to Sebring for the iconic 12 hours, and the Daytona Prototypes (of which there are plenty here at Daytona) came to play on the big banks. But what if that split had been healed a decade earlier than it eventually was. Imagine if we had seen LMP1 cars racing on these high banks. Eventually we would no doubt have seen the whooshing diesels of Audi and Peugeot battling it out through the bus stop. Well, this weekend we can. As David Porter is here with his incredible 5.5-litre V12-powered Peugeot 908 HDi FAP. And it looks absolutely splendid.

Porsche 962 Löwenbräu

This is just another Porsche 962, duh. Well, actually it’s a Porsche 962 that’s unlike most others. You see rather than being assembled in Stuttgart and shipped over the pond to race in IMSA, this car, HR1, was built under licence right here in the USA. Al Holbert had already been racing another 962 for several seasons in IMSA, and decided he could make a few minor improvements to bring this GTP-spec 962 up to the standard of the competition. So good were Holbert's adjustments to the 962, that he won the IMSA GTP title in 1985, and the car would win nine races over the next three years. Sadly Holbert died in a plane crash in the 1980s, with IMSA retiring the number 14 in his honour, but today we will see five-time Le Mans winner Derek Bell share this iconic car with his son Justin and race again at Daytona.

Photography by Pete Summers and Ben Miles